Waterford — Robert Yuchniuk never expected to spend his last week with the Waterford Police Department getting his nose licked by a 2-pound Chihuahua.

But that’s what he was doing Monday, the same day he announced he would retire from the department after nearly 28 years.

Friday was his last day on the job.

Mia the Chihuahua was one of seven dogs Yuchniuk removed from a filthy Quaker Hill home after police charged a woman in the house with multiple counts of animal cruelty last month.  

The tiny dog looked healthy and energetic Monday, sitting in a cage with another Chihuahua in the Waterford-East Lyme animal shelter, a small building next to the Waterford Police Department.

The two dogs were found living together in a 12-by-18-inch cage with a small litter box and two bowls. Mia was malnourished, with a scarred ear and severe dental disease.

It was the most recent animal cruelty case Yuchniuk has handled in his six years as the animal control officer for Waterford and East Lyme, but not the most heinous.

“I’ve seen much, much worse,” he said.

Yuchniuk spent more than two decades serving and protecting Waterford’s humans before he took responsibility for the animals in the two towns.

The son of a Montville police officer, Yuchniuk joined the force at age 21.

“I knew at a very young age that’s what I wanted to do,” he said. “That was my aspiration when I was a child. I wanted to be a police officer, driving around in a police cruiser, helping people.”

Yuchniuk's 27 years on the force kept him busy.

He responded to a car crash involving a fellow officer, piloted a program that took officers out of patrol cars and put them on bicycles, and in 2004, responded to a domestic violence call in a Waterford condominium with another officer, where a man stabbed Yuchniuk in the arm.

The other officer, Matthew Fedor, shot the man, Desjon J. Edwards, twice. Edwards died later that day at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London. A report by the New London State's Attorney later found Fedor's actions justified.

Life as the animal control officer may be a little quieter than that, but Yuchniuk said he still works hard.

"Everybody thinks I play with puppies and kittens all day," he said. "It’s a lot, and it’s stressful."

As the only animal control officer for Waterford and East Lyme, he's responsible for a 79-square-mile area 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"The phone rings, it’s three in the morning, I'm going out," he said. "Most people don’t want to do it."

On Easter Sunday this year, Yuchniuk said, he left dinner with his family to respond to a call about a possible rabid skunk.

Yuchniuk will be leaving behind the 24-7 responsibility when he retires, but not the animal control business — he took a job in Groton as the assistant animal control officer there, a civilian post where he can make a salary in addition to his Waterford pension.

It’s not often that a police officer volunteers to take the animal control officer job.

“I think that you have to be called to it,” Waterford Police Chief Brett Mahoney said. "He's very good at his job ... but you've got to be an animal lover to begin with."

"Bob is firm but fair with the people, and firm but fair with the animals," Mahoney added.

Yuchniuk lives in Montville with a family that includes two Boston Terriers, a canary, a bearded dragon and a cat with several names, one of which could be Princess Skittles.

But when he takes Mia the Chihuahua out of her cage, she might as well be family, too. Yuchniuk said he has fostered about a dozen dogs at his home before they could be adopted.

The latest was Hershel, who Yuchniuk caught after he had been roaming the streets of Waterford for days.

"After a couple days, bringing him food, he knew I wasn't going to hurt him," Yuchniuk said. "He turned into a great dog."

Donations paid for surgery on Hershel's leg, which was badly broken. The dog lived with Yuchniuk and his family for two weeks before getting adopted.

Hershel's picture hangs on the wall in Yuchniuk's office, a small room in the tiny building off the main police department building on Avery Lane.

The building isn't nearly big enough — it has room for about 10 large dogs, and Yuchniuk often has had to ask other local shelters to take in animals that don't fit there.

For years, Yuchniuk has been involved in deliberations in the town over whether to replace the building or combine resources with other towns to build a new shelter in another place.

Along with his wife, Melissa, he helped donors raise more than $200,000 to build a new shelter. The fate of that money has been uncertain since a committee composed of Waterford and East Lyme residents recommended building a regional shelter at the prison last year.

Yuchniuk said town officials have asked him not to comment on that proposal.

But he has continued to collect donations — solicited and otherwise — of essentially anything he needs to keep the shelter running, including food and toys.

He created and ran an active Facebook page for the shelter, a move he said changed the way he did his job.

He regularly posts updates on animals he rescued or found on the job.

The shelter has a 95 percent rate of getting animals he catches adopted or returned to their owners, he said, which he said would not be possible without Facebook.

Luke Leonardi, of Holbrook, N.Y., adopted one of his family’s four Dachshunds after Yuchniuk posted a picture of the dog on the shelter’s Facebook page.

“We were the first ones to reply,” he said.

Yuchniuk had found the dog, now named Bandit, wandering the streets with another Dachshund.

“The feeling you get in rescuing a dog at a shelter is so much better than when you purchase it,” Leonardi said. “We will never do it any other way.”

Yuchniuk also has used the page as a place to request donations.

"If I say 'I need dish soap' to people, they bring down dish soap," he said. "I appreciate the support of everyone out there that's helped out and donated and volunteered and worked on fundraising."

Mahoney said the page would be turned over to the two officers who will replace Yuchniuk part-time.  

On Monday, Yuchniuk went to the Facebook page to announce he would be leaving Waterford.

"I am not ashamed to say I have cried over some of the cases I have worked, always striving to stay positive and upbeat," he wrote, before the page was flooded with dozens of comments from well-wishers.

"Some of the dogs we have helped, Hershel, Hope, Pilgrim, Shadow, Holly and many more, have shown both the worst and then the best aspects of the job. It has been my distinct honor and privilege to serve the citizens and animals of our communities."

m.shanahan@theday.com